£9bn paid in stamp duty in just 12 months

The cost of stamp duty in the most expensive area of the UK is almost £60,000 more than the cost of an average house in the cheapest part of country.

Figures from HMRC take showed the Treasury raked in £9 billion from stamp duty across the UK in the last year. But the two most expensive boroughs in London collected almost £1bn of that between them.

In Kensington and Chelsea, the average bill for stamp duty on a property purchase is £171,264, while the average cost of a home in Bradford – recently revealed to be the cheapest place for first-time buyers to get on the property ladder – is just £113,000.

London boroughs' take is 10 times the north-east

In fact, the total tax take on property duty from sales in Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea was 10 times more than all of the north-east of England paid to HMRC in stamp duty.

In the north-east, stamp duty for the last 12 months totalled £105 million; the north-west sent £455m to the Treasury; Yorkshire and the Humber £310m; and Wales £160m.

Savills estate agency had analysed the recently released HMRC figures. Lucian Cook, its director of residential research, told The Times: "The sheer scale of the receipts mean it is unlikely the chancellor is going to cut stamp duty for this part of the market any time soon."

1st-time buyers save £159m in property tax

Meanwhile, first-time buyers in England have saved £159m since the introduction of stamp duty relief in last November's Budget.

So far, 69,100 first-time buyers have claimed the relief on property transactions up to the value of £250,000. That's almost a quarter (19 percent) of all residential transactions in that time frame. Half of all first-time buyer exemptions (49 percent) were in London and the south-east.

Get expert help on your side

At In-Deed, we work with conveyancing solicitors who are hugely experienced in dealing with stamp duty transactions, and the cost of completing your HMRC return will be included in the no-obligation quote you receive for the conveyancing services you need.